Saturday Evening Cartoons: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Perhaps it's strange to review what's ostensibly a Christmas movie in the middle of October, but then this is a very strange Christmas movie... 

     The first full-length, stop-motion feature from a major American studio, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a benchmark of stop-motion animation. Released in 1993 the film is directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton. In it, Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon), the leader of Halloween Town gets himself in trouble when he happens upon Christmas Town and decides to take over the holiday for a year. The idea for the film came from a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Taking inspiration from the television specials Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas". Burton hoped to adapt the poem into a television special but it never got off the ground as the executives at Disney felt it was too strange for their brand. Later on, after Burton's success with Beetlejuice and Batman, the studio approached him about the film, hoping to match the technical breakthrough that was Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

     Burton was not actually involved too heavily in the film's production, spending no more then 10 days on set according to director Henry Selick. Selick, who had first met Burton during his time at Disney, was a perfect choice to bring Burton's vision to life. He had worked on animation all his life, and shared many of Burton's macabre sensibilities. Selick would go on to create more stop-motion features (James and the Giant Peach and Coraline) but none would ever match the success of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Nonetheless, Tim Burton's fingerprints are all over this film from the gothic production design, to the cast (Catherine O'Hara , Glenn Shadix, and Paul Reubens are all featured), to the soundtrack by Burton's favorite collaborator Danny Elfman who also provides the singing voice for Jack.

     Elfman's music is delightful. The instrumental score, relying mainly on lower range instruments, perfectly capture the macabre, ghoulish nature of Halloween Town. The songs are great too. With eleven of them spread out over the film's 76 minute run-time, it's almost wall to wall with songs and every one is a winner. Elfman provided many of the vocals himself and his heavy use of inflection give them a really expressive quality. He brilliantly weaves the various themes and motifs established in these songs throughout the score. It was written, largely, before the script was completed. Caroline Thompson, who Elfman was dating at the time, wasn't brought in to write the screenplay until after Elfman, with Burton's input, had written the music and lyrics.

     In a sense it's like How the Grinch Stole Christmas in reverse, with a character who doesn't really understand Christmas enchanted by it. Unlike in The Grinch however there is no revelation here of what the holiday is actually about. In general the film doesn't have much of a human story but I wouldn't necessarily expect a 70 minute film inspired by Rankin and Bass Christmas specials to have much deep character drama. It's basically a midlife crisis story about an artist whose stuck in a rut and experiences something new and exciting which fills him with drive and inspiration once again.

     The animation of course is amazing. The set design is classic Tim Burton, a sort of mixture of Dr. Seuss and German expressionism and Burton's own eccentric, goth sensibilities. The art directors also drew from the works of Ronald Searle and Edward Gorey to give the film the feel of a living illustration. It took one hundred artists and technicians three years to complete the film and it's amazing to realize that they had to film the movie frame-by-frame, creating every subtle movement, change in lighting, and camera move painstakingly with their own hands. Many shots have hundreds of elements, all moving at once, yet the movement always feels lifelike and expressive.

     With it's groundbreaking animation, unique visual style and amazing soundtrack The Nightmare Before Christmas is a pitch perfect tribute to Rankin and Bass Christmas specials and a holiday classic in its own right.

Score: 10/10